Beating the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship Game will be all about stopping the high-powered offense called by head coach Sean McVay, so it’s handy the Seattle Seahawks have a “huge advantage” over the Super Bowl-winning play designer ahead of the game at Lumen Field on Sunday, January 25.
It’s an advantage outlined by Michael-Shawn Dugar of The Athletic. He pointed out why Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald can make his opposite number one-dimensional with a trip to the Super Bowl at stake.
As Dugar put it, “McVay can’t run the ball on Macdonald. That’s a huge advantage for Seattle.” It’s a curious statement when the Rams rushed over 100 yards in both regular season games against the Seahawks, but Macdonald may still want McVay to call more rushing plays if it means relying less on star quarterback Matthew Stafford.
Putting the game on the arm of the 37-year-old might look like advantage Seahawks. Yet some recent numbers should make Macdonald and his dominant defense nervous about what the potential NFL MVP could produce when the stakes are this high.
Seahawks Have Matthew Stafford Problem
Most quarterbacks struggle to decipher the elaborate mix of disguised coverage and sophisticated pressure the Seahawks deploy, but Stafford has found success of a sort. The veteran signal-caller’s “averaging 294.8 passing yards on 7.3 yards per attempt with 10 touchdowns and one turnover (on a notably low completion rate of 56.8%). His 0.06 EPA per play in those games matches what Lamar Jackson and Jaxson Dart posted this year, though it’s well below Stafford’s league-high average of 0.23 this year, according to TruMedia. A Macdonald defense has only sacked Stafford twice — and both came when he was in Baltimore,” per Dugar.
Getting to Stafford in the pocket is a problem Macdonald and the Seahawks must solve. It’s an issue borne from Stafford’s quick release, according to veteran defensive tackle Leonard Williams.
The Seahawks not being able to harass Stafford is surprising given the depth of their pass rush. Williams is credited by Pro Football Focus with generating a team-high 64 pressures, while defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence created 58.
It might be time for Macdonald to support Williams, Lawrence and Co. with more blitzing. Doing so would go against the grain of what’s worked all season, when the Seahawks blitzed just 19.3 percent of the time, per Pro Football Reference.
The Seahawks will have the luxury of blitzing Stafford if they can shut down McVay’s running game again.
Sean McVay’s Play-Calling Will Prove Decisive
McVay is often lauded as one of the best play-callers in the NFL, but he’s had no problem criticizing his own “terrible” play-calling against the Chicago Bears in the Divisional Round. The 40-year-old knows he won’t be get away with being as reckless against a Seahawks team playing “special” football.
Trying to counter the swarming Seahawks, while also making up for his mistakes in Chicago, could make McVay conservative. That would suit Macdonald, who would welcome anything to reduce the number of times Stafford gets to target star wide receivers Puka Nacua and Davante Adams, but it will depend on which run defense shows up for the Seahawks.
Will it be the group gashed for 5.4 yards per rush by their NFC West rivals in Los Angeles back in Week 11? Or can Macdonald coach a repeat of the performance that saw the Seahawks yield just 3.2 yards per carry during Week 16’s 38-37 overtime win in Seattle?
The answer to those questions will determine how McVay and Macdonald call this game and decide the destination of the conference title.
Seahawks Have ‘Huge Advantage’ Over Sean McVay